Judge makes probable cause finding in Mallove murder

New London Judge Susan B. Handy has found there is enough evidence to prosecute Chad M. Schaffer for the beating death of physicist Eugene Mallove in May 2004.

Schaffer, 32, is charged with murder, first-degree robbery and felony murder. He is accused of killing Mallove, 56, in the driveway of Mallove's mother's home at 119 Salem Turnpike. Mallove died of a crushed trachea.

Schaffer and his former girlfriend, Candace Foster, were arrested on April 1. Schaffer exercised his right to a probable cause hearing in which the state was required to convince a judge there is enough evidence to prosecute Schaffer.

The hearing that began last month concluded today with testimony from Norwich police detective James Curtis. On the witness stand, Curtis described how detectives gradually built a case against Schaffer and Foster during multiple interviews. Curtis also testified that police have not made any DNA matches in the case to date, though the state laboratory is still conducting tests. He said the lab also is looking at a "herringbone pattern" found on Mallove's bloodied clothing that appears to have been transferred from the shirt of an assailant.

Both Schaffer and Foster eventually gave incriminating statements, and when the probable cause hearing began last month, Foster described how she, Schaffer and Mozelle Brown had participated in the brutal beating. Foster, who was in the state's witness protection program for nine months before her arrest, said she and Schaffer had once lived at the Mallove property with Schaffer's parents, Pat and Roy Anderson, who had been evicted. Foster said Schaffer left their Chestnut Street apartment On May 14, 2004, after receiving several phone calls from his mother, who was upset that somebody was at the home throwing away their possessions. Mallove had traveled from his New Hampshire home to clean out the property for his mother.

Foster said Schaffer came home with blood on his shirt and boots and told her he needed her to go somewhere. Schaffer's cousin, Mozelle Brown, drove them to the property, Foster said. They smoked marijuana and the men said they "had to make it look like a robbery." When they arrived at the scene, Foster said Mallove lay on the ground bleeding and begging for help, and that Schaffer forced her to take part in the crime so that she could not report him to police.

Police have said they expect additional arrests. Brown, who has not been charged, is serving a federal prison sentence.